A fun copic challenge

Hello blogland!  I forgot to post this card yesterday - it's this week's second challenge at Crafting by Designs.  Our challenge was to use summer colors on our project: yellows, blues, reds, and I had the perfect summer image to go with these summer colors.

It's one of my new stamps from StampersBest.  I fussy cut the image after it was colored with Copics, and just popped it up on a piece of cardstock from the DCWV Mariposa stack, added a sentiment from The Cutting Cafe and a piece of dyed seam binding - easy peasy summer colors birthday card :)

Use Your Scraps

Hello blogland!  It's roasting in NJ - 104.6 in my backyard...in the shade!  Even the birds aren't splashing in the water fountain today, and the pool water is like bath water.  So this heat calls for quick crafts, and I have a new one to share with you.  One of the new challenges at Crafting by Designs is Use Your Scraps, and our challenge is to create a card or layout using the first 3 pieces of patterned paper scraps and one piece of solid scrap you see in your scrap pile, and make stripes out of them on a white or black base. 

Easy peasy!  I used a Martha Stewart corner punch on the end of each piece for a little added interest, added a digi stamp from The Cutting Cafe which had been tinted with Lindy's Stamp Gang startburst stain, and a piece of seam binding that has been dyed with Lindy's Stamp Gang Tibetan Poppy.  This card took less than 5 minutes - it took longer to tie the bow :)  So come on, get those scraps out and use them! 

What do you do with all your projects?

Hello blogland! This morning I went into my craft room to start playing with my new stamps from Stampers Best, but first I had to clean off my desk, put away the cards I finished last week, take a few pictures.  When I make cards and they come out really well, many times I'll make two or three of them.  One will go right into the box for Operation Write Home (as long as it meets their requirements of A2 size and no glitter), and one will go into my box for when ever I need a card.  But really, how many cards do I need?  I thought maybe it's time to open up that Etsy shop again.  I enjoy sharing my cards and I did pretty well with my shop, but this time I decided to try Art Fire.  I don't want my cards to just sit in a box, I want someone to enjoy them, and since I've got pictures of most of them, the process is going pretty quickly.

So that got me thinking - what does everyone do with all their cards?  I'm getting a headstart on my holiday cards, and I always keep a big stash of birthday cards (remember June), but most of us don't craft to become rich.  We'd go broke buying all the supplies!  Well, let's see how this works out :)

Christmas in July!

Hello blogland!  It's another beautiful weekend in NJ and I'm going to two BBQs today - smile :)  But next to a day spent with good friends and good food is a day spent playing with new stamps.  Yesterday I got a whopping box full of brandy-spankin'-new stamps from Stampers Best and I can't wait to dig in!

I picked a lovely assortment of summer, fall, winter, love, Thanksgiving, nature, and vacation stamps.  There must be a hundred new items to choose from and it was tough to narrow down my list.  But what I couldn't resist at all were the new snowmen; I've got a thing for snowmen.  Here's two cards I made for this week's CAS Challenge - Christmas in July at Crafting by Designs.

Cute, right? It was even more fun making snowmen cards when it's almost 100 degrees outside.  And what's Christmas without presents?  For all my crafty friends, here's a 10% off coupon code for Stampers Best when you sign up for a FREE Premium membership, so you can get some new stamps too :)